Freda

NZRB has become a lumbering and expensive operation with fingers in too many pies. However, looking at NZTR's underwhelming track record the ability to take on more responsibility would be questionable imo.

Yes, exactly. To retain Waikouaiti and not Oamaru beggars belief..its the best winter track in the south island with excellent facilities...and to claim Timaru has 'no infrastructure' , same.....as well as being a base for a good number of galloping trainers...who advised this shit? I've no problem with track rationalisation, but it has to have benefit for all.

I would think that mindset would be held by most clubs on tracks earmarked for closure. If NZTR thinks it can blackmail it's way into asset ownership I think it might face a fight....especially considering its track record to date is woeful.

Yep, you're right re Kumara, the more it got 'improved' the less reliable it became. Definitely the worst track to keep....but worth stuff all so lip service can be seen to be paid to ' keep a racing presence in the district ' .....and flog off the most valuable, Hokitika. Except the committee won't let that happen so I think we can forget racing on the Coast. Kumara can't stand alone.

Isn't that HK model similar to that which exists in the UK where Wetherby's holds money in acct to pay trainers and other exes?

I remember Westport gallops, always popular. Think from memory they were denied a licence by NZTR but stand to be corrected .

Bang on, Chief and Rowley.

Agree re. Hoki...great scenery, nice people, heaps of interesting shops/cafe's, much more to do - and the club has significant assets. That will be why it has been earmarked for closure as opposed to Kumara which is [ I think] leasehold land. Knowing some of the committee, hwever, there will be diddly squat chance that anyone else will get their undeserving mitts on their money.

Absolutely, Chief. ...but it is already a 'summer holiday circuit '.....are you meaning that it should drop to a picnic-type designation.?

You're quite right - IMO - Kumara the worst track with recent abandonments...the busloads of pissed punters will still turn up but the racing and facilities are shite, and there will be NO N.I representation for one day a year. No way can that course support four racedays - that's assuming the other clubs wish to race there. Hokitika, for one, would have a rip-roaring high-stakes day and tell the industry, see ya later. As for the other clubs maintaining facilities for horses to all race at Kumara...no way. You can call it parochialism, but in this instance at least, the climate and topography just don't lend themselves to multiple racedays on one track. Someone has given JM some bad advice, on this aspect at least.

That's not classy, P.D. The management have clearly made a fk-up but the lady has always had style.

Yeah, couldn't agree more. If anything is going to put punters off, it isn't the fact that the amateurs are, well, amateurs - but the bizarre ruling from head stipe who allowed a rider to put up nearly 2kg overweight in the Riccarton race. That must have really impressed those who had put their bets on early.

Oh..ffs...let him have the retirement he is clearly looking for. Greedy bunch of pricks.

I should add I do not like to see a beaten horse flogged, and the practice of easing down a tired animal to run again another day, yep, fine. But this guy seems to have brain fades..or something...

I'm not one to bag riders - normally - I feel they have a hard enough job as it is trying to satisfy their obligations without being subjected to ill-informed criticism from the sidelines..but I'm with you on this one. I thought he was ordinary on Speedy Jax as well, the horse was making ground albeit under a bit of persuasion; but he showed the benefit of a strong ride at Riccarton. Suddenly the jock loses interest and so did the horse..? And I seem to recall Mr Mor being eased out two years ago in the Koral...and then start in the National under Croppy and finish second.!

There's nothing wrong with making a move 600 out - or more than that. If the tempo of the race is going to result in a sprint home, then putting the pace on at a time to suit your own mount is a perfectly reasonable tactic. The problem is the inability to judge pace....and that problem - IMO - is endemic, as is the inability to 'read' a race among officials. My apprentices were expected to work to the clock. If I wished an even work at 14 to the furlong, then that's what I expected to happen. They became good at it, and were constantly among the leading riders around. They hated being made to do it, though..! one lad, who moved to Sydney upon the ending of his apprenticeship, was riding work for Gai Waterhouse. The lass still working for me rang him to catch up, and in the conversation complained bitterly about the 'bitch' [ me ] requiring her to work to time. ' I thought it was crap, too,' said the lad, 'but now I realise just how important it is. Listen to her.' I cut out a newspaper article from years ago where David Walsh had been charged with 'not giving his mount every chance..' Stipe at the time was Noel McCutcheon, who seemed to have a god-like status among the fraternity. Walsh, although not always everyone's favourite, has long been recognised as one of the finest judges of pace produced in NZ racing. David was trying to explain that the horse he rode, upon which he won the previous start, was not able to take a similar handy possie as the leader was an apprentice girl ' who was attempting to go through the sound barrier' . The pace was suicidal, he pointed out, and his horse would have been among the first beaten. He eventually ran on to finish fourth on this particular occasion. The pace of the race, said McCutcheon, is irrelevant.....FFS, the pace of the race is everything.

Ah, our 'management' fixed that problem at Riccarton a few seasons ago.....they watered the outside to make it as unattractive as the sodden inner.

Finished feeding and rushed inside to watch the great mare...trying to swallow the lump in my throat as she let down and stretched home...now I hope no-one comes in until I can mop my eyes and restore some dignity...! What an absolute privilege to witness.

To bring this forward....horse has been returned to vendor's agent pending adjudication by Disputes Tribunal.

I'm with you there. The shocking inaction with a couple of serious horse abuse cases down here ( and no doubt there have been others less well publicised) disgusted me and I haven't donated since. A local horse float company owner hit a hawk while driving, wounding it but not fatally. He rang the SPCA to be told by the woman answering the phone ' we don't do birds.....can't you hit it on the head or something?' Luckily he remembered there was a woman who rescued wild birds and was able to deliver it to her.

Moi..?

Pretty sure he was by Kurdistan too.

A friend of mine was on the Wahine when she went down...working, not travelling. One of his mates grabbed him by the hair as he was being dragged away in the water...very lucky to be alive.

Well.....kinda and kinda not....I remember people referring to the Hinemoa but never travelled on her - or the Maori. Believe it or not, I had never crossed the strait by sea until fairly recently, when I took a horse to Tauranga, and then a year or so later, a couple to Foxton. Picton to Wellington of course, not from Lyttelton as in earlier times.

Oh no I'm not....a baby that is....I remember Lin Colling, played for Auckland I think, a sort of understudy for Sid Going as i recall and made the All Blacks too.